and russia is worth by eu-russia trade. there is no substitute for u.s. leadership and we learned that in iran. the european nations did not want to impose sanctions, the u.s. administration and the u.s. congress really put these companies to a choice, do business in iran or the u.s. it was u.s. leadership that allowed sarkozy of france to get the other 27 eu members to do something meaningful. that is what is missing right now. host: carla anne robbins another headline from "the new york times." peter baker says the sanctions have limited impact. he makes a point that many issues involving russia's economy predates sanctions and even pretty the annexation of crimea. guest: the piece makes two points. one is that the russian economy was slowing to begin with. it was in pretty bad shape. a lot of the impact of the huge amount of capital flight, the drop in the stock market and the value of the ruble while it might predates sanctions, it began at the time of the crimea crisis because people were expecting sanctions. the market had already factored in the cr